Author: Reese Cumming

In my usual research, I reach out to various reference platforms; this subject of authority being no different. What was interesting in most of them was not the content of information available, but rather the lack thereof on the subject of authority. One we all know, Wikipedia, on its primary page on this subject, has a little less than 1600 words on this subject matter. Why there’s literally three times as much information on ice cream in Wikipedia as there is on authority. In addition, the website IEP, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, has no separately listed entry for authority at all. Wow! considering the reality that human authority is pretty much responsible for the vast majority of human development – good and bad – since the beginning of our overly-conscious species.

This is fascinating; considering the existence of authority in our human societal structure is the most dominant, controlling element of human behavior. If I didn’t know better, and I don’t so I’ll go ahead and say it, one would think it’s almost conspiratorial the lack of revealing information on the nature of authority. This is something I will comment on in a later post.Continue reading By Whose Authority?

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever;He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear him;as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

My wife, Kathryn, returned from her day-long, business trip to West Palm Beach last night, Monday. Sunday previously, she had just returned from a four-day, business trip to Dallas. She loves her work. She is dedicated. Her immutable allegiance to what she “ought’ to do is immeasurable. She has the same dedication to her Lord, Jesus Christ, and her ministry work in the Catholic Church.

Last night, I filled her in on the latest, rising scandal in the Church; the assertion that Pope Francis was well aware of the horrific, disgusting behavior of Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick since at least 2013, and that Francis choose to protect and promote Cardinal McCarrick within the Church during that time to near-present. They (meaning a very unusual collection of individuals and groups) want the Pope’s head on a platter. Continue reading The Innocents

The old adage, and truthful, is that one never sees their own shortcomings; only those of their neighbors. This isn’t just a one-off. The fact that this is true points us towards another fact, and that is humanity accepts the relational interactions that it engages in as foundational – unchangeable – to the very physiological and psychological nature of our species. We see the manner, the way, in which each human being engages with another human being – an individual – or to a number of human beings – a group – as what we are in a natural state. In other words, the manner in which we relate to one another and communicate with one another is what we refer to as being normal; it’s natural and typical of a human being who is sane and ordered; the median of human experience and range of expression. It’s observable in our history, we exhibit it now in the present, and most likely we will continue this normal into the future. This is just how a human thinks, talks, and acts. We really have no idea what an alternate to this normal could possibly be.

Humanity has been obsessed with the ‘Why’ of things since before homo sapiens ever emerged from its previous ancestors. And as you might have gleaned in my last post, God & Man – Part Three – Scarcity, I am asserting that we have had little choice in the matter as to what type of animal we would become. Much of our future was predestined by the nature of ourselves within the environment about us. You may think we’ve had some options, and you’d be wrong; the point being that humanity can never exist, nor evolve in a manner that does not fit within the universe’s natural mechanics. Something not there cannot be a causal agent. Continue reading Man and God – Part Four – Our Social Construct

In a previous post, I discussed the concept of particulars. Perhaps then, a reader might have wondered what this has to do with Christian issues and values, and certainly what does it have to do with a certain hypothesis I repeated from Man and God – Part One:

“Try to consider the possibility that God created and continues to create only good things. And try to imagine that no good thing can stray from being a good thing; for to see such happen would render God as less than good himself. Now consider, therefore, that mankind is thus good and has not strayed from the course that God set forth for mankind when created.”

“Mankind is evolving; this we must acknowledge, for man has changed in all ways physically and intellectually since recorded, historical evidence began, and therefore, this evolution is and must be of God’s will. Now, here comes the hard part for many. Now imagine that where man is today and where man will be tomorrow is also in God’s plan and of God’s will.”